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Abhishek Sharma in action during first India vs New Zealand T20I in Nagpur. (PHOTO: CREIMAS FOR BCCI)
For years, the most destructive T20 opener wore dreadlocks, carried a languid demeanour and struck sixes with disturbing nonchalance. Chris Gayle has long bid farewell to international cricket and top franchise leagues. In Abhishek Sharma, the mauler from Chandigarh, the game has discovered an ideal heir.
Their techniques and frames are different. The Indian doesn’t possess Gayle’s ludicrous reach or the demolishing arcs he traced, but he has suppler wrists. He doesn’t have Gayle’s frightening forearms, yet his delightful bat swing carries the ball vast distances. Their run-scoring avenues, however, are strikingly similar. Both are murderous down the ground and off the legs, and disdain anything short on the off side. Gayle thumps those deliveries in front of point; Abhishek slices them backward of the point fielder. Pyrotechnical improvisations rarely tempt either.
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The soul of their game is founded on classical methods, simply stretched to the extremes. The simplicity is ludicrous. Gayle often cleared his front leg just as the bowler released the ball. Abhishek’s first response is to dance down the track, adjusting to the length to hit the bowler either straight or over cover. He has an off-side predilection—47 of his 84 runs were scored through this region—but only a couple of singles came via third man or finer. Gayle’s wagon wheel would look much the same.
Indian opener Abhishek Sharma scored 84 off 35 and struck eight sixes against New Zealand in the first T20I. (PHOTO: CREIMAS FOR BCCI)
Both are six-hitting colossi. Gayle has struck more sixes than any cricketer to have walked onto a serious cricket field—an astonishing 1,056 in all T20s. That is more runs in sixes alone than Jonny Bairstow has scored in the format. One in every 9.5 balls Gayle faced ended beyond the fence. As devastating as Abhishek is, his career is still nascent and has a long way to go before catching up with the Jamaican. Yet on Wednesday, he became the fastest to 5,000 runs in the format. Eight gorgeous sixes took his tally to 309—already a third of Gayle’s total in less than a quarter of the games. Abhishek strikes sixes at a similar rate (one every 9.3 balls) and has already surpassed some of the cleanest hitters in the game, most notably his mentor Yuvraj Singh (261), of six-sixes-an-over fame.
Like Gayle, he hits them without strain—natural, instinctive, seemingly effortless. As if he could clear the ropes blindfolded or moments after being woken from sleep. In mood—which he is most of the time—he finds a way. When bowlers cramp him, he creates room. When fast bowlers bounce him, he unfurls his horizontal-bat arsenal. Both are thrilling to watch, operating in Formula One mode, yet rarely resorting to low-percentage strokes. That was the secret to Gayle’s consistency—an average of 36.22 at a strike rate of 144.75. Abhishek averages 33 (a metric that matters only alongside a strong strike rate) at a staggering 171.65. Gayle finished with 22 T20 hundreds; Abhishek already has eight.
Gayle has watched him bat and once tipped him to break his IPL record of 175. “Yes, he can get 175. He is young and has shown potential,” he said. Whether Abhishek eclipses it or not, he is rapidly swimming into the galaxy of the Universe Boss—the new six-hitting superhero of the post-Gayle era.
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